Understand how IT is perceived to get in synch with business needs
- Posted:
- 16:19 01 Nov 2004
Get a better idea of what users
expect
In most organisations the relationship between the IT department
and the business can be described as four different levels.
At level one IT is a facility. Here the IT department focuses on
reducing the overall cost of manual operations. The approach is
based on automation of standard functionality and business
justification is to control expense (not necessarily to increase
value).
At level two IT is a service. Automation moves into the managerial
levels (eg sales forecasting) and the focus turns on quality. The
justification of IT to the business is based upon controlling
costs.
At level three IT is a partner. Here it moves toward creating a
strategic advantage and focuses on helping the organisation
increase market share.
At level four IT is an enabler. The focus is on creating
sustainable new revenue streams and gives an organisation an edge
over rivals.
The book provides a checklist to help understand what level of
importance your IT department is perceived as having within your
organisation. This involves matching the perception of IT value on
the demand side and the supply side, so the checklists should be
answered by both communities. Key checklist questions include:
- What is the primary area in which the board expects a value
contribution from IT? For instance is it process efficiency,
organisational effectiveness, or strategic?
- What is IT's primary business driver? Is it expense control,
business unit measurements, market share horizontal and vertical
linkages or industry domination?
- At what level is IT management influential within the
management of the business? (IT users, business unit, the executive
team or the board).
- What is IT's perceived role within senior management? Is it a
provider of technical capability, a basis for organisational
efficiency, a strategic alignment with the business, or helping to
deliver the corporate vision?
- On what basis does alignment between business strategies and IT occur? Is it piecemeal hardware/software, application systems with business processes, or a holistic synergy?
Answering these questions is designed to give you a view of your
IT value perception level. This checklist is a starting
point.
The next step is looking at the detailed characteristics to verify
whether this first assessment suits you and where the deviations
are. This next stage helps in determining the focus for your
organisation.
IT Performance Management, by Peter Wiggers, Henk Kok and Maritha de Boer-de Wit is part of the Computer Weekly Professional Series. To order a copy of the book, priced £39.99, go to http://books.elsevier.com/computerweekly
